Glider - Towplane Signals

"Greg Arnold" wrote in message
news:AK20e.1003$AN1.904@fed1read03...
Tony Verhulst wrote:

I've tried the speed-up slow-down signals occasionally,
but if I really needed the speedup, I'm not sure I'd want to be churning
the controls.


A few years a go, club member, with full water was being towed too slowly.
The tow plane radio was inop and the last thing he wanted to do close to
stall was to rock his wings.

Tony V.


What is the chance that the towpilot would notice the wing rock, anyway?

I always thought that the wing rock was for "speed up" was not the greatest
choice. Also, I have had mixed results with the "turn" signal, it is usually
not noticed. I find that particularly distressing when the tow pilot insists
on taking me downwind.

As someone else already noted, there is really no reason to not have radio
communications these days.

Vaughn

lets talk about the tow pilots wing rock.. for GET OFF NOW!!!....
as a tow pilot... when you've got your hands full of a sick engine... last
thing I want to be doing is rocking so hard as to be obvious wing rock above
the normal bumps of a thermal or rotor..

he gets one rock... then he's eating rope..

BT

"Vaughn" wrote in message
...

"Greg Arnold" wrote in message
news:AK20e.1003$AN1.904@fed1read03...
Tony Verhulst wrote:

I've tried the speed-up slow-down signals occasionally,
but if I really needed the speedup, I'm not sure I'd want to be
churning
the controls.


A few years a go, club member, with full water was being towed too
slowly. The tow plane radio was inop and the last thing he wanted to do
close to stall was to rock his wings.

Tony V.


What is the chance that the towpilot would notice the wing rock, anyway?

I always thought that the wing rock was for "speed up" was not the
greatest choice. Also, I have had mixed results with the "turn" signal,
it is usually not noticed. I find that particularly distressing when the
tow pilot insists on taking me downwind.

As someone else already noted, there is really no reason to not have
radio communications these days.

Vaughn

At risk of making myself look daft because I've mis-remembered the
signals, I'm pretty certain that here in the UK rocking the glider's
wings is an indication that you can't release from tow (though it's
actually combined with flying out to the left before giving the signal)
and so by implication, I'd guess, a request that the tug release you at
an appropriate point.

I'll also add that before I go to work on getting cleared for aerotow
(I'm not in any rush - so far I've trained, solo'd and got my bronze on
the winch) I'll make sure I've revised and am certain of the signals.
Although I imagine most of the private gliders at my club have radio,
our training fleet of Ka13's doesn't, so tug and tow are reliant upon
signals as the only form of communication between them.

Bill

BTIZ writes
lets talk about the tow pilots wing rock.. for GET OFF NOW!!!....
as a tow pilot... when you've got your hands full of a sick engine... last
thing I want to be doing is rocking so hard as to be obvious wing rock above
the normal bumps of a thermal or rotor..

he gets one rock... then he's eating rope..

BT

"Vaughn" wrote in message
...

"Greg Arnold" wrote in message
news:AK20e.1003$AN1.904@fed1read03...
Tony Verhulst wrote:

I've tried the speed-up slow-down signals occasionally,
but if I really needed the speedup, I'm not sure I'd want to be
churning
the controls.


A few years a go, club member, with full water was being towed too
slowly. The tow plane radio was inop and the last thing he wanted to do
close to stall was to rock his wings.

Tony V.


What is the chance that the towpilot would notice the wing rock, anyway?

I always thought that the wing rock was for "speed up" was not the
greatest choice. Also, I have had mixed results with the "turn" signal,
it is usually not noticed. I find that particularly distressing when the
tow pilot insists on taking me downwind.

As someone else already noted, there is really no reason to not have
radio communications these days.

Vaughn




--
Bill Gribble
http://www.scapegoatsanon.demon.co.uk
- Learn from the mistakes of others.
- You won't live long enough to make all of them yourself.

"Bill Gribble" wrote in message
.. .
so tug and tow are reliant upon signals as the only form of communication
between them.

Compared to most other things in aviation, portable radios are cheap.

Vaughn

Vaughn writes
Compared to most other things in aviation, portable radios are cheap.

Perhaps. But though I don't know why they aren't in common usage in our
club fleet (in either the single or two-seaters) I don't think it's an
issue of cost. But neither do I think they're missed on a day to day
basis.

Perhaps things might be different if we were primarily an aerotow site
or we had to share the airfield or otherwise manage a high traffic to
space ratio? But as it is, aerotow is the exception rather than the rule
and we have the luxury of a large airfield all to ourselves

Anyway, in token gesture to topic, I only raised the matter as an
example of when aerotow signals might get more use, but even then I'm
only guessing as I can count the number of aerotows I've taken on the
fingers of one thumb. And that was from a different site and we did use
a portable radio to co-ordinate!

--
Bill Gribble
http://www.scapegoatsanon.demon.co.uk
- Learn from the mistakes of others.
- You won't live long enough to make all of them yourself.

"Bill Gribble" wrote in
message .. .
At risk of making myself look daft because I've mis-remembered the
signals, I'm pretty certain that here in the UK rocking the glider's wings
is an indication that you can't release from tow (though it's actually
combined with flying out to the left before giving the signal) and so by
implication, I'd guess, a request that the tug release you at an
appropriate point.


the glider wing rock for cannot release is given AFTER the glider has moved
off to one side of the tow plane (normally left for those side by side
seating tow planes)... not when directly behind the tow..

BT

"BTIZ" wrote in message
news:4F40e.73236$Tt.29647@fed1read05...

he gets one rock... then he's eating rope..

Fair enough! In that situation you do what you gotta do.

Vaughn

BTIZ wrote:
lets talk about the tow pilots wing rock.. for GET OFF NOW!!!....
as a tow pilot... when you've got your hands full of a sick engine... last
thing I want to be doing is rocking so hard as to be obvious wing rock above
the normal bumps of a thermal or rotor..

he gets one rock... then he's eating rope..

No kidding! If he doesn't notice the smoke/oil/loss of climb by then,
let him go.

Shawn

Also, I have had mixed results with the "turn" signal, it is usually
not noticed.

Pull harder !

The turn signal works when the tow pilot runs out of rudder, then he
turns !

Todd Smith
3S